


Writing the Future

by inalasahl



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M, Lunar New Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29277879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inalasahl/pseuds/inalasahl
Summary: The old year is ending. Time to make way for the new.
Relationships: Inara Serra/Simon Tam
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Writing the Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ifimightchime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifimightchime/gifts).



> The name Emma is comics canon for Wash and Zoe’s daughter, so I went with it.

Inara’s shuttle is clean, ready for the new year. She will have time to hang the fai chun around the ship. This year, more than most, there is reason to hope in good wishes.

Everyone is home.

Serenity is safe, docked on an unassuming moon with a breathable atmosphere. The only evidence of human visitors are the three graves it holds. Zoe isn’t much for tradition. But there’s one ancestor whose memory they all try to keep alive for Emma.

The first banner is intended for the cockpit entrance. Mal pokes at River as Inara hangs her wishes for good fortune. “I left her as bright and shiny as Kaylee’s smile for you and now you’ve got your feet up on her, fresh as a daisy.” Since the Tams returned from the mysterious business that was supposed to leave River’s mind clearer than Inara’s ever known her, something’s been building between River and Mal. Something Mal’s not quite ready for.

“She doesn’t mind it,” River says, in the way she still has. Her bare feet are indeed up on the yoke, though Inara hopes the auto pilot is on and River’s not steering that way. River’s head is turned, looking slyly over one shoulder at Mal with a cheeky grin, daring him to disagree.

Inara thumps the bulkhead fondly as she affixes the banner. “She gets more beautiful every year,” she says.

“That she does,” Mal replies, but he’s not looking at her. He’s looking at River, returning her smile with a smirk of his own. The years have taught him something about expressing affection in words other than grumpiness and insults. He straightens up suddenly, looking discomfited. “Get her red up,” Mal snaps, as he leaves.

“I know what you’re thinking,” River calls after him with a giggle. In any case, River’s sharp wit is more than a match if the years still have a few more lessons to teach him. They’ll be good for each other if the two of them ever figure that out.

Luck and happiness go outside the engine room where Kaylee is cheerfully chattering away to Emma as the two of them share a tangerine, purloined ahead of tonight’s reunion dinner. They try not to, but with only one child in their midst, Emma is a bit overindulged. Inara has no doubt that Emma will receive seven red envelopes tomorrow, against all common sense.

Zoe and Jayne are arguing the finer points of their family dumpling recipes in the mess as they prepare competing dishes, but Simon isn’t there, nor in the infirmary. She finally spots him as she hangs the last of the banners, at the entrance to the passenger quarters, where he still keeps his bunk.

A smile curls up his face as he sees her, though his body body remains stiff and alert. Inara has no difficulty reading the nerves in his form, though she pretends she doesn’t see.

He’ll tell her the cause in his own time.

She covers his hand with her fingers and squeezes, gratified when he lifts it to his own lips and leaves a kiss behind. “I missed you,” he says, as if he hadn’t already said it when Serenity docked to pick them up. She cups his cheek and lifts up on her toes, spends a minute or two kissing him for real, kissing him the way she missed him, deep and fierce.

“May I show you something?” Simon asks. “A surprise,” he says. She knows he’s been working on something in his quarters.

He leads her to the door. The bed’s slightly wider, enough for two, if they don’t mind sleeping close, with a silk coverlet. The far wall now has a longer desk, with two chairs instead of one and an empty trunk opened beside it. It takes her a moment to put the changes together in her head. It’s a space to be shared.

Everything’s fastened down properly for space travel. Kaylee must have helped him. The last couple of years have not always been kind to them, Serenity’s family, too many jobs gone south and days gone bloody. But at least none of them have lost each other. Even as their hearts tumbled about and found new resting places, they managed to stay family, to stay in like with each other. It means they all still have a home together, to come back to for the new year, and that’s something Inara wasn’t sure she’d find when she first left her companion house.

“I know it’s small,” Simon says. “But I thought — you do your business in the shuttle. I wanted to invite you to share my space. Not take yours from you. If we were on Osiris —“ he swallows, shakes his head. “We’re not on Osiris. Or Sihnon. But I hope — I hope you know that just because I can’t walk out with you or take you to meet my parents doesn’t mean —“

“I know,” Inara says. “Simon, I know.”

He takes a deep breath. “I know it’s sudden, but I wanted to begin the year with — a beginning.”

Most men would have asked her to stop before this, she thinks, but Simon never will. There’s a dozen house madrassas that would offer her a teaching position if she made it known she was looking. It’d probably mean a quarter to half a year gone to pay her rent on Serenity, but it also would mean no clients. Inara doesn’t know yet which life suits her, but it’s good to have the choice. She’s been thinking about it, but hasn’t decided yet. It’s nice to get confirmation that it won’t come between them. That Simon won’t ask her to choose.

She slips her hand under his vest to stroke his chest and enjoys the how sharp and serious his eyes turn even as a mild blush stains his cheeks. “Will you share my bunk?” he asks, ridiculously formal.

“Yes,” Inara says. The new year is coming, and it bodes to be a lucky one.


End file.
